1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light stabilizer, particularly to a novel light stabilizer comprised of an arly nitrogen compound which is useful when used as a stabilizer for improving lightfastness of light-vulnerable organic materials. More specifically, the present invention relates to a light stabilizer of cyanine dyes and uses thereof. The term "light-vulnerable organic materials" as used herein refers collectively to organic materials that deteriorate, degrade, change, fade in color, change in color or experience other changes upon exposure to light, and among other things, cyanine dyes are particularly important materials to be treated by the light stabilizer of the present invention.
2. Background of the Invention
Organic dyes have been extensively used in coloring fibers and plastics and in such applications as analytical indicators and photographic light-sensitive materials. Recently, an unconventional use of organic dyes as "functional dyes" has expanded, as examplified by use in dyes lasers, conversion of optical energy and optical recording. Whichever application organic dyes are to be put to use, they have to meet several requirements.
Optical recording media that use a thin layer of organic dyes as a recording layer are also well known. If such optical recording media are left to stand for a prolonged period under exposure to light in various forms, the organic dyes deteriorate by light and their recording characteristics are impaired. It is therefore very important that optical recording media using organic dyes be protected against deterioration by light. A common practice of protecting such optical recording media against deterioration by light is to incorporate various light stabilizers. However, conventionally used light stabilizers do not have high degrees of lightfastness and miscibility with dyes, so the keeping quality of the recording layer and its recording and reproduction characteristics have been far from being completely satisfactory.
Recording media are conventionally formed in thin films by evaporation, coating and other techniques. The formation of thin films by coating is industrially advantageous over other methods since it is capable of producing large films in high volumes. In order for the coating method to be adopted, all components of a recording medium must be soluble in solvents. Among the conventionally used components of recording media, many organic dyes are fairly highly soluble in common organic solvents but, on the other hand, most light stabilizers are poorly soluble in organic solvents and hence it has been difficult to form thin films of recording media by the coating method using light stabilizers.
While several characteristics are indispensable to dyes, most important are good dyeability, high washing fastness. adequately high color densities and high color fastness to sunlight Because of color sharpness and high color density (i.e., high molar extinction coefficient), cyanine dyes have drawn much attention of researchers, but their use has been limited on account of poor color fastness to sunlight (Horiguchi,"Synthetic Dyes", p. 311, Sankyo Shuppan).
Various methods have been proposed to improve the color fastness of dyes to sunlight. One method is to add a metal complex that absorbs light in the longer wavelength range (Japanese Patent public Disclosure Nos. 59-215892, 62-193891, 62-207688, 63-199248 and 63-19293). Another method is to add a material that retards fading in color by oxygen (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 59-55705). Still another method is to introduce a ring into a methine chain (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure Nos. 62-187088, 62-196180, 62-207684 and 63-33477). However, none of these proposals succeeded in solving the problems in a satisfactory way. Further, the addition of metal complexes and the improvement of a dye structure suffer the disadvantage that the dye often becomes less soluble in various solvents.
The conventional methods of light stabilization which chiefly rely upon the use of additives or the improvement of dye structures impair the solubility of dyes in solvents, particularly in polar solvents, so in most cases &hey have been unsatisfactory for the purpose of solving the problems of the prior art in terms of the method of using dyes and the amount in which they are used. Hence, a first object of the present invention is to provide a light stabilizer that is not only capable of effectively rendering dyes lightfast, but also suitable for use as an additive that has high solubility in solvents and sufficiently good miscibility with dyes to insure that their solubility will not be impaired. A second object of the present invention is to use this light stabilizer for the purpose of preventing various reactions that cause deterioration by light in organic dyes, in particular cyanine dyes. A third object of the present invention is to use this light stabilizer for the purpose of improving the keeping quality and recording and reproduction characteristics of optical recording media that use organic dyes in the form of thin films.
Organic dyes fade or change in color upon exposure to light and the mechanism of these phenomena largely remains unclear because they involve the interaction between the structure of specific dyes and various environmental factors (e.g., substrate, the atmosphere, pollutants contained, humidity and temperature). General references on the mechanism of fading of dyes by light include a review by Charles H. Giles and Robert B. Mckay, "The Lightfastness of Dyes, A Review" in Textile Research Journal, Vol. 33, p. 527 (1963); Kitao, "Chemistry of Functional Dyes", p 65, CMC; and Akamatsu, Hirashima et al., "Applications of Photochemistry", p. 169, Kyoritsu Shuppan, but these references do not show explicitly the mechanism for the fading of cyanine dyes by light or the conditions for making them lightfast.